1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a printing press and a method associated therewith as as described herein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Printing presses, in which a plurality of inking systems is disposed around at least one common impression cylinder, are well-known. These printing presses are primarily used for the printing of flexible materials such as those used for package printing. In these printing presses, these materials are located on the impression cylinder so that they are not subjected to any deformation during the printing process.
Each of the inking systems comprises at least one print roller and at least one ink transfer roller. In flexography, often used in package printing, this ink transfer roller is an anilox roller that removes printing ink from an ink fountain, for example, from an ink chamber blade and applies it to the printing plate attached to the print roller. The ink is transferred from the printing plates onto the printing substrate. Printing presses in recent years have evolved to such effect that an independent drive is assigned to each individual print roller and anilox roller of such an inking system.
A printing press of the type described above is disclosed in DE 10 2005 039 782 A1. DE 197 55 316 A1 discloses a similar printing press, in which an independent drive is assigned to each roller, the individual drives including that of the impression cylinder being disposed in an alternating and staggered form in the axial direction.
Printing presses are known, in which eight or ten inking systems are disposed around an impression cylinder. The impression cylinder is usually mounted for rotation in a central machine frame. The impression cylinder naturally comprises first and second front surfaces, both of which extend in the vertical direction and are parallel to each other. The drive for the impression cylinder is often disposed in the region of any one of the two front sides, which is why this side is referred to as the drive side. The control console for the operating personnel is often provided in the region of the other front side. This side is therefore referred to as the operating side.
When the printing press is viewed at in the direction of one of the front sides of the impression cylinder, the printing press or the actual printing unit can theoretically be divided into two halves. For this purpose, a vertical plane can be assumed that is disposed such that the axis of rotation of the impression cylinder is located in this plane. At least one first inking system is located on one side of this plane, that is, in one half, and at least one second inking system is located in the second half.
In known printing presses, every two inking systems are often disposed and/or constructed symmetrically to the vertical plane. It is therefore necessary to provide different components for each of these two inking systems, which components do not differ in terms of their functionality but are formed so as to be mirror-inverted relative to each other. If every two adjacent inking systems are constructed variably in any one of the two halves, there would consequently be hardly any identical components inside the printing press. For such a printing press, there thus exists a very large number of components, which makes the stocking and the management of these components a laborious and thus expensive process. On the whole, this leads partly to high costs for the production of such a printing press.
DE 198 33 467 A1 therefore discloses an offset printing press, in which two printing units are positioned such that they are rotated through 180° relative to a vertical plane. In doing so, the drive means assigned to the cylinders are also disposed such that they are rotated. However, the aforementioned document does not provide any suggestions for the manner in which the anilox rollers and the drives thereof are to be arranged in order to produce the printing press more cost-effectively.